Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the article "Mitigating the risks of antimicrobial failure", by Dr Wendy Thompson, Callum Wood and Professor Mike Bromley, published by the National Preparedness Commission on 6 September 2024; and what consideration they have given to adding to the national risk register scenarios about specific, acute antimicrobial resistance concerns, including the emergence of resistant strains of the wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici.

The 2024 to 2029 United Kingdom antimicrobial resistance (AMR) national action plan sets out challenging commitments and targets to confront the risk of AMR across the breadth of human, animal, and environmental health. The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs works closely with the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, which monitors fungicide resistance development in cereal pathogens, to inform disease management strategies.

Whilst the 2023 National Risk Register classifies AMR as a chronic risk, the Government recognises the potential for AMR to manifest acutely, for example, as an outbreak of a resistant bacterial or fungal infection. The Department of Health and Social Care commissioned the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to produce some realistic worst-case scenarios of the acute risks that AMR poses in the UK. The developed scenarios include bacterial and fungal pathogens and are based upon real-world experience. The UKHSA will now develop plans to use these scenarios to inform incident response and preparedness plans.